June is the time for being in the world in new ways, for throwing off the cold and dark spots of life. Joan D. Chittister More Quotes by Joan D. Chittister More Quotes From Joan D. Chittister Hope is what sits by the window and waits for one more dawn, despite the fact that there isn't an ounce of proof in tonight's black, black sky that it can possible come. Joan D. Chittister black waiting sky Life is the ability to start over again. Joan D. Chittister starting-over life-is life Life is a thing of many stages and moving parts. What we do with ease at one time of life we can hardly manage at another. What we could not fathom doing when we were young, we find great joy in when we are old. Like the seasons through which we move, life itself is a never-ending series of harvests, a different fruit for every time. Joan D. Chittister ease joy moving All of us wrestle with the angels of our inabilities all the time. We live in fear that our incapacities will be exposed. We posture and evaluate and assess and criticize mercilessly. Joan D. Chittister posture inability angel Living well has something to do with the spirituality of wholeheartedness, of seeing life more as a grace than as a penance, as time to be lived with eager expectation of its goodness, not in dread of its challenges. Joan D. Chittister grace expectations challenges Try saying this silently to everyone and everything you see for thirty days and see what happens to your own soul: I wish you happiness now and whatever will bring happiness to you in the future. Joan D. Chittister soul wish trying To be a presence of perpetual thanksgiving may be the ultimate goal of life. The thankful person is the one for whom life is simply one long exercise in the sacred. Joan D. Chittister goal exercise long Goodness is a process of becoming, not of being. What we do over and over again is what we become in the end. Joan D. Chittister becoming goodness ends Failure is the foundation of truth. It teaches us what isn't true, and that is a great beginning. To fear failure is to fear the possibility of truth. Joan D. Chittister possibility foundation encouragement The question is not, do we go to church; the question is, have we been converted. The crux of Christianity is not whether or not we give donations to popular charities but whether or not we are really committed to the poor. Joan D. Chittister church giving peace No one finds time for prayer. You either take time for it or you don't get it. Joan D. Chittister take-time prayer time We each should have 2 pockets: in 1 the message, 'I am dust & ashes;' in the other, 'For me the universe was made.' Joan D. Chittister pockets dust should-have Fear is not the opposite of courage. Fear is the catalyst of courage. Joan D. Chittister catalyst opposites inspirational Why do people think the spiritual life demands withdrawal from the ordinary? Because they've been taught, at least by implication, that the physical is a block to the spiritual. When we assume that the spiritual, unlike the physical, is impervious to corrosion, then we assume that all things material are not to be honored. But the fact of the matter is, the material is the vehicle of the spiritual. Joan D. Chittister block spiritual thinking Imagine how happy, how holy, life would be if we ever really learn to see beauty. Joan D. Chittister holy imagine would-be Nothing weighs more heavily on age than time. Nothing has more meaning Now time becomes, with a kind of ruthless honesty, what it has always been: life's most precious commodity. The only difference is that, finally, we know it. Joan D. Chittister differences honesty time For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is 'icon,' 'star,' 'hero,' ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves. Joan D. Chittister stars hero mean Blind obedience is itself an abuse of human morality. It is a misuse of the human soul in the name of religious commitment. It is a sin against individual conscience. It makes moral children of the adults from whom moral agency is required. It makes a vow, which is meant to require religious figures to listen always to the law of God, beholden first to the laws of very human organizations in the person of very human authorities. It is a law that isn't even working in the military and can never substitute for personal morality. Joan D. Chittister military religious children Memory is not about what went on in the past, it is about what is going on inside us right this moment. It is made up of the stuff of life in the process of becoming the grist of the soul. Joan D. Chittister soul memories past Solitude is not a way of running away from life ... from our feelings. On the contrary. This is the time we sort them out, air them, get over them, and go on without the burden of yesterday. Joan D. Chittister air yesterday running
